Our Love Story - How We Met

This is the second part of a series about our love story. 

If you have not read the first part, you can read it here: 

Part 1 

Roman:

I heard about Raluca a few months before I met her. I was working on a book, getting it ready to be printed out. I asked Marissa who was doing the formatting of the book to do it before a certain date because I wanted to have it printed for Youth in Mission Congress. She was happy to hear about Youth in Mission and she told me that Raluca, one of her friends, whose prayer ministry changed her life, will be there. I did not know who this friend was, but when I arrived there, I had the chance to see her. I saw her picture in the booklet and that she had a workshop on prayer. Then I remember one of my co-workers talking to a dark-haired girl. At this moment I could see more of her curly hair than her face, but something got my attention.

Raluca:

It all started with a prayer. "Lord, give me Germany or I die!" I was helping in the prayer room at Youth in Mission Congress in April 2012. I was there to pray with people, but it seemed that people did not want to pray with me. They were too afraid to pray with someone else. So, on a Friday evening, I decided to wrestle with God in prayer and claim Germany and Germans for His glory. I was inspired by the prayer John Knox prayed: "Give me Scotland, or I die". So I prayed the same prayer for Germany. Little did I know that God will answer this prayer in ways I have never ever thought about. It has not crossed my mind at that time that a German husband could be one of his answers to my prayer.

You see, I gave God the pen to write my love story 12 years ago. After a heartbreaking and painful experience I decided that I do not want to make choices for myself anymore and I promise God that I will allow Him to make the decisions for me. There were times when I almost picked up the pen again, there were times when I could not find joy in my singleness, when the thought that I might never get married scared me. There were times when I wrestled with God in prayer reminding Him that I am serving Him and that He forgot about my emotional needs. But God did not give up on me and He kept my heart safe... He kept teaching me to be content in Him and to allow Him to lead me. As I entered my 30s, instead of being more desperate, I started to become more and more content in my singleness. As I drew closer and closer to my Savior, as I discovered a deeper and more meaningful relationship with Him, I started to find more and more joy in His presence. He became everything and enough for me. So the thought that I might never get married did not scare me anymore. Pouring my life into His service brought so much peace and joy and happiness to my heart. He was everything I needed. I did not need anybody to make me happy because He was my happiness. There were evenings when I still felt lonely. I still wanted to get married. But I chose to surrender both my loneliness and desire to have a family to Him. Knowing that He wants what is best for me and will not do anything to harm me gave me such a deep peace.

I went back in Germany a year after I prayed: "Lord, Give me Germany or I die". In the same place, for the same purpose.

Roman:

Just before GYC in Europe I became more and more aware of my need to have a deeper relationship with God. This time, just before Youth in Mission I realized that I need to spend more time in prayer and to learn more about how to draw close to God in prayer. I was interested to go to a workshop on prayer, but I had a dilemma: there were two workshops on prayer in the same time. What workshop should I go to? I really wanted to go to Raluca's workshop, but I asked myself: "Why do you want to go there? For the workshop or for the speaker?" I really did not want to go for the wrong motives. After thinking things through, I decided to go to hers. I arrived late and sat in the back. Some things that she said hit home for me. I started to see some things in a new light and decided to share with her some of my thoughts, if I had the chance.

The next day, I was trying to decide if I should go to outreach or to the prayer room. I decided to go to the prayer room to pray if there were not too many people. If the room was full, I would go to outreach. I was happy to see that the room was not full, there was still space. Soon the room was too small and people had to turn back. Had I come a little later, things might have been different. I was amazed that prayer can be so interesting, especially when you pray the Scriptures... In one of the breaks between the prayer sessions, I got the courage to go and talk to Raluca. I told her that I want to share some thoughts with her. We decided to talk later that day when we were both at our booths. So as I shared my thoughts with her later that day, she did not seem impressed at all. It seemed to me that she already knew all the things and she did not seem as excited as I was. (Later on I found out that she was excited, but she was just not showing it). Even though she did not seem excited, I was not discouraged and was still determined to find out more about her. Having the booths next to each other offered us the opportunity to interact a little bit and see her interact with other people. She was very friendly and open with people and I was impressed.

Raluca:

After a prayer session I was approached by a gentleman who told me that he has attended my workshop and that he would like to share some thoughts on prayer with me. We met later that day and as I was listening to the different connections he had made between different Bible verses and some of the things I had said in the workshop, I remember thinking: "Here is someone different." I was used to people coming to me for counseling and advice. He did not need any advice, he did not have any struggles he wanted counsel for. He simply discovered things and he wanted to share them with me. I was impressed.

Between the time he told me that he wants to share some thoughts with me and the time we actually talked I counseled a guy who was facing some challenges. Since he was a man and his challenges were specific for men, I remember thinking: "Lord, I am fine being single, but right now I need a man to counsel the men." Little did I know that I was soon going to speak to the one who was God's answer to this prayer.

Roman:

I wanted to be able to read the quotes again so I asked her for the power point presentation. She promised to send it to me and this was a perfect opportunity for me to contact her after the congress :-) I was determined to write to her as soon as I got home. And this is exactly what I did.

When the congress ended I really wanted to tell Raluca goodbye, but she was talking to some people and I was not comfortable walking to her. I was happy when I ran into her while coming back from my car. We shook hands and said goodbye. It was a little awkward because I kind of lost my words while looking at her and seeing her smile.

Raluca:

We left Youth in Mission telling each other that we will meet again six months later at the ARME Bible Camp. But God had other plans for us.

To read the rest of our Love Story go here:

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6